state of London underground

[speed-it-up]

I used to cain that Pull the Strings tune si put up!

There are no good soundsytems playing techno, acid or otherwise on the London squat scene on a regular basis. I went to one after the thing on Hackney Marshes the other week. 50 people, really shit techno, you had to be on k to even tolerate being there.

Compare that to 6 floors of an office block in the city, which you got regularly in the late 90s and you can see why all but the most diehard party heads give 'em a miss.

[nekro]

yeah, i popped my head into that one as well (sainsbury's building right?) - it was 2am and nothing was getting sorted so i cut my losses and went home. there are some decent parties further out of london and in the home counties, just need to avoid the hard trance/hard style sound systems

[speed-it-up]

yeah, i popped my head into that one as well (sainsbury's building right?) - it was 2am and nothing was getting sorted so i cut my losses and went home. there are some decent parties further out of london and in the home counties, just need to avoid the hard trance/hard style sound systems

Yeah, supermarket rave.

Can't be arsed to drive all that far to a free party anymore unless I know who is doing it or am spinning myself. If I want to hear quality techno now I'll go to a club.

[the_psychologist]

So Immersion and the like no longer do free parties? I don't have a sense of who the major rigs are now.

[Aratron]

So Immersion and the like no longer do free parties? I don't have a sense of who the major rigs are now.

no one important, by and large its a front for crooks to have an easy market to sell crap drugs.

[wrong]

Felt to comment even tho i don't play the london acid sound, but have been involved with the parties

[wrong]

oops.. try again...
Felt to comment even tho i don't play the london acid sound, but have been involved with the parties for a looong time.... I totally agree with whoever said that the music sometimes can be so monotonous and it was allowed cos everyone is too ****ed to realise... the london squat party these days can be a dismal place, with dark corners, robberies and a lot of people who are there not for the music or even the party, infact really not sure why they're there.. to get rowdy and simpley cos they've nothing better to do.. Not saying there aren't still people who do care.. just not nearly as many as before.. before it was everyone's party, now the responsibility generally falls soley on the soundsystem for everything...I think its like this because people stopped caring, stopped putting effort in, stopped getting the buildings the week before and stopped spending all week decorating it. the people who did care about putting good parties on in the 90's got pissed off with all the politics and stopped coming out, leaving it to people who lets say had other priorities, to drive the thing into the ground.
Now there are lots of really positive crews who are doing parties, and every few parties it will go OFF.. in a good way.. when everybody comes out, there's a good building... not a massive open warehouse with 30 people shivvering round a stack in the far corner and most importantly, a great atmosphere. In my opinion the crews who put on regular techno squat parties these days are all really sound and have the best attitudes, its just that there are now so many negative 'components' that have been ignored for so long that they're now almost part of it and not enough people are 'on it' enough to stand up to it and say NO (and i mean crew AND ravers).
As far as i'm concerned, ketamine played a massive part in dulling things, it definately took the importance out of the music and took the awareness away leaving parties a free for all for thieves and general dark behaviour... But agreed.. the days of 1000 happy smiling people, from all walks of life having it as one are truely over.. Although, the best parties now seem to be the semi private, smaller squat parties/semi-legal parties where you can quite easily have 100 smiling people in a room together :)
Please forgive the rant...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTiAU-w1KyI&e

[rhythmtech]

bow road 98/99 - immersion, twisted & underground sound all combined into one big **** off rig - jugglers, fire breathers, ddr live, all 3 liberators, lawrie playing pounding grooves live for one of the first times. good ****ing times!

[Gus]

This lot (Mutoid Waste Company) are still around, they had a wiked gabba tent at glastonbury and a robot drummer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHcX2Q5OBJg[/QUOTE]

[Gus]

and these parties play acid techno and happened in the last year and look like they have a pretty good vibe :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBjP01U6IBo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRswUt_jm0

[nekro]

immersion stopped before the millenium i think, last time i saw the immersion rig out was at glastonbury in the travellers field, 99 i think.

there are occasionally multi-riggers but they cater more for the breakcore and drum n bass crowd and attract people from the home counties

[Si the Sigh]

Yea man, Immersion system at Glasto 99... :)

[AcidTrash]

In the other thread, the Chris Lib interview, Chris says the Fck you element has gone form the music. That is as true of acid as ever. Very little gutsy music around at the moment.(RIP Havok)

But then look at the backdrop. Think of any time since WW2 and the major musical movements are against a backdrop of economic and political upheaval. The acid techno movement was almost certainly a backlash to the Thatcherite economic reform programme which saw many in the working class wholesale disenfranchised.

ITs no coincidence that the impoverished Eastern Europes post communist dance scene utterly exploded. It was a celebration of liberty.

However, younguns today and us have had well on 16 years of economic stability, wealth and political security. We've had too much of a good thing for too long and taken it for granted that it will always be there to go back to.

While the lifestyle is fun and exciting, it also has an immense physical drain and is a huge distraction when it comes to securing your bases (ie income and housing). It's not something you do half heartedly so for a lot of people the hard choice has been all or nothing. Many have opted for the latter because the lifestyle, excpet for a privalaged few, is not sustainable.

Blowing half your wage on vinyl is also not sustainable and in an absolutely saturated and creatively spent market, where music is a commodity, committing anything less than awesome to vinyl is just not a risk worth taking.

In short, it's the economy, stupid.

But that is about to change. Everything is cyclic to some degree or other and we are about to see a lot of economic casualties. People who can no longer keep abreast of rapid changes in their diminishing finances and in such times, many will revert to their default setting... blowing it off and having fun. Much easier to do when you have nothing to lose.

At the moment, we all have something to lose but for many of us, that will change and when it does, I assure you, there will be no shortage of "fck you" music or parties to go to.

[nekro]

I The acid techno movement was almost certainly a backlash to the Thatcherite economic reform programme which saw many in the working class wholesale disenfranchised.

i think you're reading too much into this music sub-genre

[rhythmtech]

i think you're reading too much into this music sub-genre

he's not reading into it too much at all.. i was in london at the parties when it all kicked off and i can tell you it was a very political movement. look at trafalgar square as an example.

[AcidTrash]

Well this is precisely it. Show me one mass youth music uprising that hasn't been a rejection of over auuthoritarian government or a result of imbalances in civil rights.

Except maybe disco but most of the 70's should be consigned to the dustbin.

[AcidTrash]

Actually thinking about it, didnt the london acid movement/squat party scene explode as a result of the criminal justice bill?

[speed-it-up]

and these parties play acid techno and happened in the last year and look like they have a pretty good vibe :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBjP01U6IBo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRswUt_jm0

munt don't go out regularly anymore

[rhythmtech]

it exploded as a result of a lot of stuff. trfalgar square was a dockers march which converged with a CJB march and it all kicked off.

like you said, it was a case of a disenfranchised youth. many elements were thrown into the pot and it all boiled over.

[AcidTrash]

Well all the signs are presently there for another boil over just by looking at the kind of rejectionist crime we are seeing lately. All it takes is a catalyst and then it kicks off again. My bet is something will happen that causes a lot of mortgage defaults or redundancies, probably form the public sector.

It can't be too far away. Will be interesting to see what form it takes this time.